WASHINGTON — Asked why plans weren’t in place to evacuate Americans from the Middle East amid the conflict with Iran, US President Donald Trump responds, “Well, because it happened all very quickly.”
He makes the remarks during an Oval Office press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
In an unprecedented measure, the US State Department called on all Americans to leave over a dozen countries in the Middle East on Monday, even though no evacuation flights have been offered by the US government. The State Department is urging Americans to take commercial flights out of the region, even though much of its airspace is closed.
Trump claims that Iran was going to attack Israel and the US, had the IDF and US military not hit first.
Pentagon briefers on Sunday reportedly told Congress that the US did not have intelligence that Iran was planning a preemptive strike against the US.
Trump says it’s possible that oil prices will climb for a “little while” but that they’ll go back down.
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